Armand Hammer

Hammer, Armand, 1898–1990, American business executive, b. New York City. He began in his father's pharmaceutical business and then expanded it into the Soviet Union. He returned (1930) to New York, where he invested in whiskey, cattle, and broadcasting. He invested in Occidental Petroleum Corporation in the 1950s and expanded it into a company with over $10.1 billion in annual revenues. In the 1970s, a subsidiary of the company was involved in lawsuits concerning the dumping of toxic wastes into the Love Canal. Throughout his life, Hammer was an active promoter of peace and economic ties between the United States and the Communist countries. His extensive art collection is housed in the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center in Westwood, Calif.

See his autobiography, Hammer (1986); biography by S. Weinberg (1989).